Historic Albany Tudors continue their long wait

Still, it’s worth mentioning that nothing has happened with the six historic Tudor homes that line a block of Holland Avenue in Albany. They’re just as they have been for years: Vacant, rotting, forlorn.

They are untapped potential. They are forgotten history.

They were built in the 1930s, and one, at 100 Holland, was designed as the retirement home for developer Jesse Leonard, who developed much of Albany and paid special attention to this three-bedroom, 2,500-square-foot house with an indoor tiled fountain and elaborately designed plaster reliefs.

Now, the houses are owned by Picotte Cos., a prominent commercial real estate firm in Colonie, and some had feared that the company was aiming for demolition by neglect — to let the houses deteriorate so much that preservation was no longer an option.

After all, a site near Albany Med could offer a better return, if developed, then single-family homes could ever deliver.

Another piece of Albany history seemed destined for dust. And if Albany, one of America’s oldest cities, loses its history, what does it really have?

But about a year ago, there began to be talk — albeit quiet talk — of a plan to save the houses.

Or at least to save a few of the houses. The details were fuzzy, but it was said that a few of the Tudors might be moved to elsewhere in the city. It was said that the plan would even please the city’s preservation community.